The kitchen was crowded with those fixing supper and Sumac had retreated to a quiet, warm corner to hold Boomer while watching the complicated ritual of food preparation. Trixie, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine were still secluded in their room, leaving him in the care of others. They needed time with one another, time to sort things out, time to rest and take care of one another. Sumac had an inkling of what was going on, though he did not understand all of it.
All three of them had spent far too much time taking care of him and not nearly enough time caring for themselves and one another. This made sense, because things had been hectic since his abduction by Queen Chrysalis. Thinking of this made him think of Discord, and he wondered how the draconequus’ new life as a pillow on Fluttershy’s sofa was going.
Even though the kitchen was just a little too crowded and had too many voices competing with one another for him to be comfortable, Sumac found he liked this—this was what he wanted more than just about anything. A big, familiar family, all laughing and talking together while fixing a meal. Even Megara was helping, as she was armed with helpful cutting claws.
Vinyl worked with Limestone to make hot spiced cider and the two mares shared smiles with one another as they laboured. Octavia and Pinkie Pie were making eggnog, but Sumac was almost certain that more brandy had gone into the two mares than had gone into the nog. The mulled wine was already finished and now stayed warm in a slow cooker, filling the kitchen with a most delightful aroma.
Multiple fondue pots stood waiting to be filled and Sumac was excited for what was sure to be a scrumptious feast. There would be all kinds of treats to dip into the fondue pots, but mostly there was lots of crusty bread. Igneous helped out by eating pretzels when Cloudy wasn’t watching, the very same pretzels that were supposed to be dipped into the fondue later.
Pinny Lane, who had rather powerful but clumsy telekinesis, worked to turn various blocks of cheese into cubes while Pebble handed her sister Megara loaves of bread to shred. Maud was disemboweling some pumpkins while Tarnish looked on in mock-horror. Everypony was doing something to contribute—except for Sumac, who snuggled with Boomer. It felt nice just to watch and it wasn’t too overwhelming.
One of the logs in the fire popped and Sumac’s ears pricked to full alertness. He listened for a time, tuning out the sounds of many voices, and the raspy crackles of the ravenous beast filled him with a satisfied sense of warmth. He had always liked the sound of a roaring fire, because he associated it with safety. Out in the wilds of Equestria, fire held back the darkness and the creatures that lurked within it.
It occurred to him that feeling warm was more than just sitting by the fire, there was actually a lot more to it than just that. The sound of a fire was somehow just as warming as the sensation of heat and there was a visual element as well. Watching the fire did indeed make one feel toasty, and there was something about the cheery, vivid autumnal hues of blazing orange. The presence of light had something to do with it, Sumac was certain of that. A fire that cast no light—no reassuring illumination—just wouldn’t feel as warm, or so he believed.
All things, big important things, were just really little things that all worked together. Fire was more than the heat it offered, it was an experience; it was the sight, the scent, the sound, and all of the associated sensations. In this way, Sumac reasoned, fire was a lot like love, or friendship, or something big and complex. Friendship was a whole bunch of little things that made one satisfying whole, something greater than the sum of its parts.
Reaching out with his mind, he picked up his notebook and his pencil from where it rested on the table nearby, opened it up, and began jotting down his thoughts, difficult though it might be to put into words. How did one define a fire? Was it merely something burning? He supposed that it was, in a simple sort of way, but that did not do fire justice, just as two ponies who knew one another did not define friendship, but it could be described as that.
He knew Pebble, but knowing one another was a poor summation of their friendship. Together, they had laughed, cried, had faced death, had plummeted from the sky, They shared secrets, told awkward, uncomfortable truths, and had reached the conclusion that they were stronger together than they were apart. Sumac of course, had trouble putting all of this into words, but he tried. His pencil scratching against the paper, he struggled to give his thoughts form and purpose, but turning thoughts into words was a special, complex magic all its own.
And so it was with family; it was more than sharing blood and having a relation to one another. Sumac’s mind strained to conceptualise such big thoughts, but he enjoyed the mental strain. Family was fixing supper together, spending time in close proximity, and taking pleasure in a shared task. As with fire, it was the experience that defined it, and all of this thinking set young Sumac’s brain abuzz.
Slipping away into his own headspace made the hustle and bustle of the kitchen tolerable, pleasant even, and as more words filled the page, Sumac did not feel so overwhelmed by the happenings around him. Without even realising it, he tucked away notes of what others were doing in between his thoughts, such as Cloudy scolding Igneous for pretzel thievery, or Octavia and Pinkie Pie taking turns chugging brandy from the brown glass bottle.
Without realising it, Sumac had found a happy place indeed.
“The pumpkin fondue with cheddar and beer is mine,” Maud announced in a commanding deadpan. “Dip into it at your own risk.” It was not immediately clear if she was joking and there wasn’t a single facial expression to give her actual feelings away.
“Okay.” Tarnish raised a long fondue fork to get everypony’s attention. “Unicorns, be helpful and move the fondue pots around. Help those around you dip if necessary. This is just as much an exercise in helping one another as it is a nice meal, so do try to be mindful of the needs of those around you. Don’t be in a hurry and don’t burn yourself.”
Leaning against the table, Sumac watched as his glass was filled with mulled wine. Not much, but a sample. Just the smell alone left him feeling lightheaded. Another glass, a much taller one, was filled with spiced cider. The eggnog had not been served yet, but Sumac was looking forwards to that most of all.
A few feet away, an enameled cast iron pot filled with bubbling cheese beckoned, and he wasn’t sure what he wanted to dip into there first. Apples? Bread? Dried cherries? Pretzels? Too many choices were overwhelming and he wasn’t sure what he wanted to try first. Feeling a soft touch against his side, he turned his head to look over at Pebble, who sat beside him.
“Dip for me?” she asked, and Sumac felt his heart go pitter-patter.
Why must it do that?
“Sure.” Halfway through his response, Sumac’s voice cracked and became quite shrill. Overall, this was quite cringe-inducing and he wanted to crawl beneath the table to hide, or perhaps to die. He watched as Pebble made a clumsy effort to skewer a thick slice of apple onto her fork, and somehow, she didn’t stab herself in her frog as he worried that she might do. This made up Sumac’s mind and he too, also chose a slice of apple for his first dip.
Trixie, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine’s absence was felt by Sumac, but he focused upon the task at hoof. Lifting the two fondue forks, he dipped the apples into the nearby pot and held them in the molten cheese to warm them. Pebble was almost leaning on him, her breathing heavy with anticipation, and this was more than just a little distracting. Boomer, perched on the edge of the table, was gorging herself with dried cherries.
Lips pressed tight in concentration, Sumac lifted the two forks and allowed the excess cheese to dribble from the now cooked apples. He gave them a few gentle shakes, which caused fat gobbets of cheese to go plopping back into the pot, and when he was confident that it was safe to do so, he brought the delicious treats back to him. Mindful of the danger, he passed Pebble’s fork back to her at an angle, so the cheese would not dribble down the length and onto her vulnerable fetlock, burning her.
“Thank you, Sumac,” Pebble said while holding her long fondue fork over her pale green plate.
“Don’t mention it,” he replied as he too, held his cheese-drenched apple over his own pastel blue plate.
Brave but cautious, Sumac touched the cheese with the tip of his tongue, then pulled away and began to blow on it. The cheese was almost the same colour that he was, had a smoky, rather nutty goodness, and little flecks of red pepper gave it a festive holiday appearance. After cooling it for a moment, he took a bite, wary of being burned, and sucked in a little extra cooling air between his teeth.
“When I grow up, I am going to have fondue at least once a week for supper,” Pebble remarked while she eyeballed her cheese-dipped apple.
“This one time, in Fancy, the gang and I—”
Tarnish had Sumac’s attention in an instant with these words.
“—we were all eating fondue and discussing which route to take for the next leg of our adventure, when who should show up but Doctor Caballeron and a gang of art thieves. They just rolled up in hired carriages and came spilling out onto the street, with the intention of hitting the museum that was across from the cafe where we were eating. Doctor Jerkface saw Daring Do, Daring Do saw Doctor Jerkface, and then I heard Doctor Jerkface say, ‘Everything that can go wrong with the plan has gone wrong.’ After that, the fight started.”
“Tarnish, have you ever had a peaceful trip overseas?” Igneous asked.
Lifting his glass of mulled wine, Tarnish replied, “Nope. Not a one.”
“So what happened with Doctor Jerkface?” Limestone, who held her fondue fork in her fetlock, leaned in with eager anticipation for whatever Tarnish had to say.
“It’s funny, the art museum was having an exhibit on pre-industrial minotaur culture.” Tarnish stabbed a piece of bread with his fork and with a bold flourish, dipped it into Maud’s fondue pot. “There was a collection of anvils there, highly ornamental anvils shaped like animals like elephants and octomegaceroses—”
Reaching out with her hoof, Maud gave her husband a smart smack for his violation and Limestone chewed with her mouth open as she listened to Tarnish. This caused Cloudy to scowl, and she waved her hoof at her daughter to express her irritation with Limestone’s poor manners.
“—Vinyl and I had the brilliant idea of giving the art thieves exactly what they wanted. We gave them the anvils. Even after they requested that we stop, we were generous with our anvil giving, in accordance with our great Equestrian ideals. That’s why we’re considered ambassadors when we go overseas.”
Covering her muzzle with her hoof, Octavia sounded as though she was choking for a moment—which caused Vinyl to turn and look in concern—but then Octavia began chortling while doing her utmost to prevent it. Her body was wracked with laughter that she could not contain, and this made her ears bob up and down with each unladylike grunt that she made.
“I saw an octomegaceros once,” Pinkie Pie said while Octavia continued with her valiant struggle. “Big. Really big. Ginormous. Really big poops too.”
“Pinkie…” Cloudy, already annoyed with Limestone, now turned her maternal gaze upon the pink pony. “Pinkie, must you?”
“Well”—Pinkie sucked in a deep breath so she could defend herself—“it’s true. Zecora told me that the zebras take octomegaceros poop, bake it in a big oven like a cake, and turn it into a brick. Then they build stuff from these bricks and what they make is super-duper strong.”
With a sigh, Cloudy gave up and dipped a chunk of soft, chewy pretzel into a bubbling pot of cheese. Rolling her eyes, she made the expression of defeated mothers everywhere, and Sumac, after everything that had been said, started to laugh. Beside him, Pebble was doing the same, and while they laughed together, Sumac nipped bites from his cheese-coated section of apple.
With his apple gone, Sumac sampled his mulled wine, and the first sip left him swimmy headed. He shuddered from the boozy taste, decided that he liked it, and then drank a little more. After a few more shivery shudders, he felt relaxed and his anxiety didn’t seem quite so bad. Stabbing his fork into another apple slice, he smiled a satisfied smile and dipped into the fondue pot just in front of him. Across the table from him, Vinyl was grinning from ear to ear while Octavia continued to battle with her need to giggle. When Pebble passed him her fork, he took it without skipping a beat and gave it a dunk along with his.
The mulled wine left him feeling warm, really warm, and Sumac wondered if he was blushing. It felt like he was blushing. Everything felt good, like he didn’t have a care in the world, and it took him some extra effort to pull the forks out of the fondue pot. He passed Pebble’s fork back to her, still mindful, and realised that the big fat wooden handle on the fork was the same colour as Pebble’s plate. His own handle matched his plate, and this felt like a major discovery, because he hadn’t noticed it before.
A bit sweaty and with his heart racing, Sumac was just brimming with affection… and courage. Such courage, a feeling of courage without reservation. Blinking once, he spent a great deal of effort to turn and face Pebble. His body, slow and sluggish to begin with, felt even more detached than usual as he leaned in Pebble’s direction. The filly beside him was the same delightful colour as the dark chocolate fondue, and overall, Sumac was rather fond of chocolate, now that he had it as a treat on a regular basis.
“You’re breathing on me and you smell,” Pebble said to Sumac as she gave him a wary sidelong glance.
“You’re cute.”
“Sumac—”
“Hey, how long did you boil the mulled wine?” Cloudy asked, cutting Pebble off.
“Oh… pshaw!” Pinkie let out a mighty snort and made a dismissive wave with her hoof. “Octavia and I never brought that to a boil to cook the alcohol out. It’s more delicious this way. It seemed like a good idea at the time… why do you ask?”
Cloudy’s response was lost on Sumac, who now had Pebble in a clumsy, but eager embrace. Hot and excited, he breathed into her flickering, twitching ear, and reveled in her extraordinary softness, which appealed to him in ways that could not be explained. Tossing his inhibitions to the wind, he puckered up and planted a cheesy, boozy smooch on her cheek, which was left shiny with slobber as he pulled away. Pebble, absolutely frozen in horror, did not move, but sat there holding her fondue fork with a cheese-dipped apple skewered on the end.
“Yuck!” Pebble somehow broke the spell and managed to blink. “Why did nopony save me?”
Still holding his small glass full of mulled wine, Sumac gulped it down before an adult could save him from himself. Now, he felt great, and heaving a sigh of contentment, he began to gnaw on his cheesy apple while he swayed from side to side in his seat. Beside him, Pebble was wiping her cheek with her foreleg while her face kept turning a darker and darker shade of brown.
“Tarnish… while we’re all in a good mood…” Cloudy twisted around in her seat to face her son-in-law and something about her expression filled Sumac with alarm. “There is something that I want to talk to you about.”
“What’s that, Cloudy?”
“Tarnish… I’d like to know how you’d feel about marrying Limestone…”
Sensing impending doom, Sumac reached for his glass of spiced cider as supper exploded into chaos…